Brandon Woodruff accepts qualifying offer from Brewers

The Milwaukee Brewers are currently in the early stages of what could be a highly consequential offseason for the future direction of the franchise. The Brewers are coming off a great regular season that flamed out quickly in the NLCS, where they were swept by the eventual World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

One of the big questions coming into this year was what the Brewers would choose to do about pitcher Brandon Woodruff, who performed relatively well during the 2025 season on the heels of a major surgery, and now, it appears that the team has made its choice on that front.

“Brandon Woodruff is accepting the qualifying offer and returning to the Brewers, source tells The Athletic,” reported MLB insider Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic on X, formerly Twitter.

Earlier in the day, MLB insider Jeff Passan of ESPN had reported that the Atlanta Braves could be a target for Woodruff should he have chsen to depart from the Brewers in free agency this offseason.

“Woodruff’s return from a major shoulder surgery that caused him to sit out the 2024 season and more than half of 2025 couldn’t have gone much better. Even with 3 mph missing from his fastball, he added a cutter and remains an elite strikeout pitcher,” noted Passan on ESPN.com.

In any case, with Woodruff now back on board for the upcoming 2026 MLB season, the Brewers will now look to make some other tweaks to their roster as they look to build off last year’s success. Spring training is set to begin in February.